Allied Gold Corporation (AAUC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I turn the call over, I need to advise that certain statements made during this call today may contain forward-looking information, and actual results could differ from the conclusions or projections in that forward-looking information, which include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, cost of production, capital expenditures, future metal prices and the cost and timing of the development of new projects. For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and factors, which may lead to actual financial results and performance being different from the estimates contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Allied Gold's press release issued yesterday. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay later on today. Replay information and presentation slides accompanying this conference call and webcast are available on Allied Gold's website at alliedgold.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Peter Marrone, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us on our call. With me today is most of the members of our management, including Jason LeBlanc and Johan Stoltz, respectively, our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer, Daniel Racine. Greg is here as well, along with Guillen and Gerardo Fernandez. Joining us also is Don Dudek. Don is transitioning into the role of Chief Exploration Officer, the Head of our exploration effort. Greg will be leaving the company at least formally as an officer at the end of April, staying on in a consulting role after that, and we're going through an orderly transition to Don for everyone's benefit. Don is very familiar with opportunities in Africa. And most recently, he was involved in the due diligence that the management of Allied as we were transitioning into management and taking the company public from April of 2023. He was involved in that due diligence on the exploration side. So we had a solid progress in the fourth quarter, record production of just over 99,600 ounces, almost 100,000 ounces. It supports our production platform, our view that the existing assets of the company can produce a comfortable 375,000 to 400,000 ounces. Our adjusted all-in sustaining costs, and Jason will take us through more of that, but that came in at $1,708 per ounce. It's a decline from previous quarters, and it's lower than where we had expected it to be when we gave our preliminary view on what the quarter looked like in January. We continued our positive progress with our growth projects, and Gerardo will take us through that. We increased our cash balances very significantly. We secured streaming and prepaid deals. And of course, we generated positive cash flow. And we have encouraging exploration results. We have a large inventory of ounces, and that will further increase. Leadership is important and management is important. It is not just the quality of the assets, but the quality of management. And so part of what we've been doing is we've been completing programs for optimizations and improvements to our local management, enhancing operation and technical support structures, reinforcement of engineering and planning teams with local talent, and moving our technical services functions, centralizing it into the Toronto office. As importantly, we've also been transitioning our management at each of the operations, including at a general management level to those with significant engineering background and local rather than reliance on expatriates. That's an important part of what we do and what we think leads to the success of mining endeavors. We completed the transition to the Chief Operations Officer, and Johan is now firmly in the seat. And as I mentioned a few moments ago, we have appointed Don Dudek as the Chief Exploration Officer, and we will be going through that orderly transition from Greg. And Greg, thank you very much for all of your efforts in taking the company public before the company was taken public and going through this transition. We've demonstrated in the fourth quarter and through 2024, ongoing improvements to community and national relations. We continue to forge strong ties with local stakeholders and governments, including at a national level. And that includes in Mali with our cooperation agreement with the Malian authorities and of course, in Ethiopia, where we have a best-in-class with a first-mover advantage as the first mechanized mine in the country. We've also pursued strategic arrangements after several asset and corporate strategic arrangements that we began in mid-2024. We did announce about a month ago an arrangement with a UAE-based investment group. That improves our balance sheet. We have begun to call it a fortress-type balance sheet. It is strengthening the balance sheet significantly. It allows for the full funding of Kurmuk and the phased expansion of Sadiola independently of operational cash flow. Implicit in that, of course, is that it means that when Kurmuk is up and running, we are not reliant on that cash flow for the funding of the second phase expansion at Sadiola, and that becomes free cash flow for the deployment for other purposes. And of course, since it has been our practice as a management to encourage dividends, we're certainly open to the advance of the payment of dividends. It accelerates our path towards free cash flow, as I mentioned, but also part of what we've been doing with these strategic arrangements is increasing the company's optionality. These deals are not must-haves, but they create increased optionality, and that creates value for a mining company. Operational improvements and strategic enhancements that are driving sustainable growth and operational excellence into the future. We cannot overlook that. With that as my introduction, ladies and gentlemen, let me pass the call to Jason and to Johan on our financial and operational performance.

Thank you, Peter. Good morning, everyone. As we discussed last month when we released our Q4 operating results, as of December 31, a substantial amount of gold produced from Korali-Sud in Q4 was in inventory and sold subsequent to year-end. Including those ounces, adjusted Sadiola sales for the quarter would have been in excess of 62,000 ounces compared with the 14,000 ounces that were actually sold in Q4. The timing of the sales of Korali-Sud resulted from administrative processes related to establishing a new operating company for Korali and transferring its mining license. Although these processes took longer than initially anticipated, the formalities related to this new entity have now been completed. We believe it is useful to take this into consideration when evaluating our performance during Q4. With that in mind, we included several illustrative adjustments to key measures to better reflect the proper performance of the business in Q4. In particular, our Q4 ASIC per ounce sold for Sadiola assumes an adjustment that includes the finished gold inventory from Korali at quarter end that could have been sold but was pending the administrative processes previously mentioned. Along with the inclusion of the sales ounces in this adjusted ASIC, all the costs associated with the production and royalties that would accrue to those ounces were included in that calculation as well. This approach better represents the unit cost for Sadiola for the quarter, which were $1,682 per ounce on this adjusted basis and contributed to consolidated AISC of $1,701,708 per ounce in the quarter. In Q4, we delivered solid financials with adjusted EPS of $0.03, which would have been $0.12 if we included the impact of the subsequent sale of inventory at Korali-Sud Operating cash flow before working capital was $141 million, increasing to over $200 million when including the sale of this Korali inventory. This was a substantial increase from $12 million last year. Lastly, cash balances were $225 million at year-end or $355 million, including the Korali inventory sale. Before I say a few things about our guidance. I'll let Johan share his thoughts on our operating performance during the quarter.

Thank you, Jason, and good morning, everybody. Q4 production reached new highs with a notable improvement at Sadiola and Agbaou. At Sadiola, production in the fourth quarter included significant contributions from ore coming from the Korali-Sud zone. Sadiola fourth-quarter results were well in line with the previously issued production guidance and consistent with Allied's previous outlook and guidance that our annual production from our producing mines is expected to be 375,000 to 400,000 ounces. Looking ahead at Sadiola, we'll continue with Phase 1 expansion in 2025, which we expect to complete in late 2025. At Bonikro, stripping will continue throughout the year, exposing high grades from Stage 5 and Stage 3 pushbacks. The production in Q4, majority at Bonikro came from the Stage 1 higher grades as the Stage 1 matured within the pushback. The production from Bonikro was then 20,259 ounces, Sadiola 54,210 ounces, and the improved Agbaou ounces, 25,163 ounces. The AISC at Sadiola, adjusted AISC was 1,682, Bonikro AISC at 1,543, respectively, and then the Agbaou AISC sitting at 1,910. In 2025, we expect the back half weighted of the production with an H1 and H2 split of 45-55. We expect the first quarter to be similar and comparable with the period from last year, ramping up to a strong Q4, where production is expected to be near 55% greater than in Q1.

Thanks, Johan. Just a few thoughts on guidance here this morning as well. We released our guidance about a month ago, but just a quick reminder on a few things. We expect annual gold production of 375,000 to 400,000 ounces and improving cost structures this year with all-in-sustaining costs between $1,690 and $1,790 per ounce. Our production on an annualized basis and realized cost structure in Q4 just passed align with this outlook. For capital deployment, $20 million is budgeted for exploration and $100 million for sustaining CapEx. More importantly, on our growth capital, we expect to spend $352 million on expansionary CapEx, which is focused on Kurmuk and the Sadiola Phase 1 expansion. We'll hear from Gerardo shortly with updates on our major growth initiatives, but I can say we're off to a solid start to the year executing on both projects, which positions Allied for a step change in production to over 600,000 ounces next year in 2026. More importantly, our cash flows grow disproportionately next year, leading to strong free cash flow generation. It's worth repeating the profile of production we're expecting throughout the year. Production will be back half weighted with 45% in H1 and 55% in H2. As mentioned, Q1 is expected to be similar to Q1 in prior years, while Q4 is expected to be our strongest quarter of the year, similar to Q4 just passed. With that, I'll hand the call back over to Peter.

Jason, Johan, thank you very much. Look, at this point in the discussion, I think it's important to talk about what makes us unique in some respects and why that will portend very well for this year and the years to follow. We have this unique presence in 2 of the world's most abundant gold belts, the Birimian Greenstone Belt and the Arabian-Nubian Shield. And we also have an unparalleled optionality with increasing production at lower costs, proportionately greater contributions, in other words, to EBITDA, and to operating cash flow. And our mineral inventory is increasing with exploration. So we have a large existing mineral inventory. 16 million ounces of measured and indicated. Of that, roughly 11 million ounces have proven and probable. At Sadiola alone, we have just over 7 million ounces of proven and probable and our measured and indicated at Kurmuk is 3.6 million ounces with a plan by midyear to demonstrate that, that number will continue to increase. Exploration's objective should be to make discovery of new ounces, the objective being to increase mine life, but also increase the opportunities for production. We have unparalleled optionality and growth. So let me pass the call at this point to Gerardo on our growth projects and to Greg on our exploration efforts. And again, to reemphasize, exploration's objective is to increase the inventory of ounces but also to allow us that flexibility to be able to bring those ounces into production sooner for greater levels of production and also to provide greater certainty. Gerardo?

Thank you, Peter. Kurmuk, we are progressing well against the plan, and we achieved key milestones in the fourth quarter last year, which allow us to carry strong momentum into the new year. So after completing earthworks in the processing area, we are advancing rebar and concrete activities in anticipation of handing over these areas to the structural mechanical contractor, which is advancing steel fabrication and mobilization to the site. We also started progressing on the earthworks or clearing and grabbing of the TSF area and other areas. And now into the new year, we are fully into the earthworks of these areas, including the main water storage dam, the haulage road and also we started pioneering on the mining areas at Ashashire and Dish in preparation for the mining fleet arrival mid this year, which allow us to advance training of the operators and also advancing the mining infrastructure. In terms of what to expect for this year for 2025, the key or main milestones are to materially advance towards mechanical completion of the plant by the end of the year. We also are advancing the key infrastructure to support the start of production of the TSF and water storage facility mainly. And also advance the mining activities I just mentioned so we can build a stockpile to support the start of production in 2026. We also are advancing the operational readiness program, hiring and training, and also creating all the systems to support the operation going forward. All of this will be followed in 2026 with the completion of instrumentation and other activities remaining under construction of the plant, minor ancillary buildings and services, and then all of that followed by the commissioning. So first goal is targeted for the middle of next year, which expect to allow us to produce about 175,000 ounces in 2026 and then ramp up in the years to follow to an average in the first 4 years of about 290,000 ounces per year. In terms of CapEx for this year, as we released in our guidance, we plan to invest $280 million in construction and the remaining of the capital is planned for 2026. Moving on to Sadiola expansion. The first phase construction commenced in the fourth quarter. We spent part of the last year on preparation and engineering. So we hit the ground running in the dry season and with the earthworks. So we're advancing on schedule and on budget. We completed earthworks in the Q4. Now we're advancing with a structural fill and also starting rebar and concrete activities also in anticipation to get the mechanical contractor with mobilizing to site and then start putting the equipment together. In terms of capital, the estimate for this year is $70 million, including the planned modifications and other infrastructure upgrades that are some of them are targeted for the phase -- for subsequent phase expansion. As a reminder, the first phase expansion involves installing additional crushing and grinding capacity in one of the lines of the Sadiola processing plant, which will be dedicated to processing high-grade fresh ore. This modification will allow Sadiola to process up to 60% of fresh rock and an increased throughput of about 5.7 million tonnes per year. And with the completion of these modifications, Sadiola is expected to produce between 200,000 and 230,000 ounces of gold per year in the medium term ahead of the next phase of expansion. So with Kurmuk in production and the first phase expansion completed, we expect to deliver significant production growth, as Peter mentioned, which is less than 16 months away from now. This increase in production represents a growth of over 50% over the current platform of 375,000 to 400,000 ounces per year, and this production growth is expected to come at industry-leading costs, driving a strong financial growth for the company and leading, as Jason mentioned, free cash flow generation. Also besides the significant growth in production and financial metrics just discussed, another key part of optionality, as Peter referred to, relates to our mineral inventories and the substantial exploration potential we have in the portfolio. And to discuss our plans on that, I will now pass the call to Greg.

Thanks, Gerardo. Good morning, everyone. Yes. So this year, as Jason mentioned before, we -- exploration spending has got a budget of $20 million to spend across all the projects. Our focus as always has been is to provide -- is to increase the mineral resource and reserve inventory and also to provide optionality to operations about better economic outcomes from shallower higher-grade ore. So we continue to pursue those opportunities on all the sites, increasing the mine life as well, as Peter pointed out, that's a key task for the exploration group. So we'll be having a mineral resource and reserves update Q3, where I think a lot of the culmination of the last 18 months' worth of exploration drilling and reserve work is going to come to fruition. I'll move on to each separate slide now, so I'll speak specifically about Sadiola. At Sadiola, you can see where we've been drilling here. Since we've acquired the project, we've had a lot of success in finding additional oxide resources and converting them into reserves for that project. We're currently drilling at FE2.5, Tambali, Sekekoto West, and then at Bonikro. We're spending this year about $6 million at Sadiola. We have 5 rigs working at any onetime. They are focused on finding higher-value oxide resources to be able to put into the process plant when it's being expanded. So the oxide ounces are more profitable. We are also exploring now for harder rock resources as we'll have the optionality with the process plant to be able to treat those as compared to currently. And excitingly, I think this year, we'll have FE4 dewatered and that historically had over 1 million ounces of oxide sitting on top of it, and there's been no hole drill from the base of that pit. So that should open up a whole lot of opportunities, I think, for the group to be able to increase the inventory. On to Slide 11 and Côte d'Ivoire. This is where we're spending the largest amount of the exploration budget. Once again, it's supporting both the Bonikro and Agbaou processing plants to be able to increase the amount of shallow ore that we can find at Hiré and at Agbaou to be able to feed into those process plants. That is a large proportion of what we're doing. We're working at here today trying to find oxide and shallow sulfide mineralization, high grade for Agbaou. We're looking at the targets a little bit deeper now at Hiré and at Agbaou for future years where there might be underground opportunities. But the main focus remains on shallow, higher-grade open pit oxide resources, and we continue to meet with success. A major component of what we're doing in Cote d'Ivoire is really bringing Oume project into pre-feasibility this year. We have 4 drill rigs working up there 24 hours a day. We have Buffer West now is a continuous zone of over 3 kilometers of mineralization. It's looking really promising. And Oume is the decade's future for the project potentially. And we look forward to being able to produce that PFS this year and a resource update by Q3. So yes, lots going on, finding a lot of gold, continue to do so. Can we move on to Cook, our favorite place? The process plant is going is very exciting for the exploration team that's been there for 7 years to see it moving into a mine is really positive, all that activity. And in between all of that activity where Gerardo and his team are building the mine and the operations team is arriving, we continue to drill and then continue to drill at Dishmountain to infill the resources, the reserves inside that current pit shell. We've got rigs moving down to Ashashhir to extend the mineralization there below the pit shells and within the pit shells. Drilling is really exciting. And out at Senegal, which sits on the eastern flank there on the map, we have 2 drill rigs out there at the moment, field camp, and we have 9 kilometers of strike to drill with gold in soil and gold in rock. We're about 25 holes into that program, which will be over 50,000 meters of drilling, and it's a very promising prospect. We look to get a resource out for Senegal by the year-end at this stage to game. We have a lot to do there. We have 5 rigs working over the entire property. And we also have project target generation happening now at Kurmuk in and around the mining license. And what we want to be able to achieve this year is to identify another Senegal target. So next year, we're also drilling that. So Don and I are off to the sites for a month and look forward to showing Don all this exciting geology and what we're doing, how much we work. And so look forward to that. And then now I'll be around for the rest of the year as well, really to help Don out when he needs it and support the company. So looking forward to it.

Mike, thank you very much for that. And let's conclude the presentation with a couple of slides or a few slides that talk about what I think is a unique opportunity. We are a unique mid-tier gold producer. As important as it is to say that we produced 99,600 ounces in the border, implying a production platform of 375,000 to 400,000 ounces per year. As important as it is to talk about improvement to cost and cash flows, an expected 8% growth in production this year over last year, and even the 50% expected increase in production literally now a year to 15 months away with Cromocqu over this year. That large inventory, which I referred to earlier and others have referred to, and that exploration upside. The quality management, particularly at a local level, and the quality of the assets in Côte d'Ivoire as we continue to improve them. We also have, in terms of being a unique mid-tier producer, 2 Tier 1 mines. We are underpinned by 2 Tier 1 mines with Sadiola and with Cromocqu. The present production platform for Sadiola, particularly with the completion of the Phase 1 expansion is 200,000 to 230,000 ounces per year. Even with the new mining code in Mali. We expect to produce ounces going forward at below $1,200 in the range of and possibly below $1,200 per ounce. But that's not the end of Sadiola. Sadiola has more than 7 million ounces of proven and probable reserves, and that number likely continues to grow. With the completion of the second phase expansion, we see a production platform that is closer to 400,000 ounces per year, certainly in the period after the Phase 2 expansion is completed all the way through to 2033. And all of that with all-in sustaining costs that provide significant margins to the gold price. The other underpinning is the opposite side of the continent in Ethiopia. Kurmuk is a world-class prize asset. And we are, as I said, within 1 year to 15 months away from start-up. That 50% production and growth just starts to paint the picture. But the fact that those all-in sustaining costs come in below $950 per ounce, long life, gives us an opportunity to be able to say that we will be generating operating cash flow and EBITDA that is disproportionately greater than a 50% increase in production. We're driving sustainable growth and value creation. We are a midsized company with a large capitalization profile, as I said, underpinned by 2 Tier 1 assets. Our growth is driven by optimizations, expansions and exploration success. We're anchored by these 2 Tier 1 world-class mines, and we're focused on the phased expansion at Sadiola, operational improvements in Côte d'Ivoire, along with exploration successes and development and further exploration upside in Ethiopia with Kurmuk. The optionality is across the board, and that includes not just exploration and increases in production, but net asset value, which is significant and will increase. EBITDA, which is significant and will increase proportionately better than the increase in production and the share price, which will, in our view, catch up to the valuation. Yes, that is showing a Wolfin sheets clothing, and that's what we are. We're poised to become a high-quality company. We're on the cusp of demonstrating that to you as our shareholders. In terms of some upcoming milestones, we have our Q1 financial and operating results that are released on May 7. Our shareholder meeting will follow on the next day on May 8. We have a new sustainability report, the report for last year in mid-2025. As was mentioned on a couple of occasions, the Kurmuk exploration and mining plan update in the third quarter, we will also provide an update on Lume for Bonikro. In that, we will begin to outline our plans for a sustainable longer life operation at our Cote d'Ivoire complex with the goal that we stated before of 8 to 10 years of production at an average of 180,000 ounces per year. And we will showcase the increases in ounces at Kurmuk plus where we are drilling that will lead to further increases, increase mine life initially, then show a plan to increase production. We're improving the geological models. We'll demonstrate that with that midyear update and the increase in inventory at Kurmuk that initially begins with Dishmountain. We're pursuing a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The symbol will be AAUC, the same as a symbol in Toronto, and we expect that to be completed over the course of the next couple of months as well. We are completing the Sadiola expansion for Phase 1 in late 2025. And as we've mentioned before, we will have an analyst and investor tour of that prize asset Kurmuk in the fourth quarter of this year. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, let me open up the call to questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Anita Soni.

I just wanted to ask with the - sorry, Trump administration and the tariffs that are coming in, do you see any potential impacts for you guys?

Well, tariffs that are coming in, then not coming in, possibly coming in, and then possibly not coming in. Anita, it's very, very fluid at this point. We're not sure. But I would say that by and large, the answer is no. We don't expect that there will be an impact to us on tariffs. Certainly in the countries in which we operate, we try to source locally wherever we can, and we don't see that the impact of tariffs certainly where it has been reported that they will be applied will have an impact on us.

Okay. And then the second question, with respect to the ounces that were sold, I think like you said subsequent to the quarter, how many ounces were sold from the Deba ore that - I'm just trying to reconcile. I thought there was- it seemed like there was more ounces sold post the quarter of inventory. And is that Q4 and Q3 inventory that we're looking at?

Yes, you can do a continuity all the way back to Q3, you pick up some of those Q3 ounces we had inventory at quarter in there. But specific to the Carwale ore, that was 49,000 ounces sold here in Q1.

Were produced at the end of the year. Yes, the 49,000 ounces is only the ounces that were produced to the end of the year.

No, and then you would add that to whatever is produced, obviously, in Q1, and that's your sales for Q1.

Yes, that's correct.

And then the last question was, could you just give me - when you said that you- if you had sold the ounces, it would have been about $0.09 extra on earnings. Did that include taxation or taxes on that or not? Was it all the impacts?

Yes, it's fully loaded from taxes and then you got to account for -- only our share of those earnings because we've got a noncontrolling interest component there.

[Operator Instructions] The second question is from Ingrid Rico.

I have 2 questions. I'll start with Kurmuk, really good progress at site. But apologies if I missed it. How is the construction of the power line advancing? How is that going right now?

Formal approvals have been obtained from a presidential level on down all the way through to the power provider EV. We're now looking at the technical aspects. So the approval between the government and the power provider is there. We interjected ourselves to ensure that we have a say in where the power line is placed. That has now been completed. We expect that by next week, all of that will be formalized and then the formal construction and installation of the power line begins.

And just thinking about 2025 production guidance, and I noted that you guys are indicating that the higher end of that range will depend on opportunities for oxide at Agbaou. And Greg touched on, I guess, some of the exploration and the exploration dollars that are going there. But I guess my question would be, what needs to get done to sort of daylight those ounces this year? And is there any opportunity to capture perhaps more oxide thinking gold prices at this level? Any sort of comments on that would be helpful.

Not on gold price, Ingrid, but when we look at the guidance for this year at Agbaou, we are at a plant capacity that is below its nameplate. And so we do have extra plant capacity. What it requires is infill drilling of certain areas that allows us to be able to capture some of that into a mine plan, a midyear mine plan that would allow us to be able to increase production for the year. In addition to that, we also have to do some further waste removal, some further stripping. Johan, let me pass it to you with any more technical details that we can provide to Ingrid.

Thank you, Peter. So Peter alluded to West Pit 3. There's 4 holes we need to go and drill within the pit itself just to confirm what we expect to extract from West Pit 3, which is the pit with higher grades. We have enough equipment then to execute the plan to remove the additional waste that Peter was talking about. That's roughly 7 million tonnes that we need to remove to get access to the additional ore that we need to then fill the plant for the rest of the year.

So in some respects, Ingrid, the question that you're asking and how we'd like to address it for you and for shareholders is that we have a number of items in the grab bag that would allow us to be able to increase production, certainly to the higher level of that 400,000 ounces. Mining has its own levels of complexity, recognizing that we're completing the first phase expansion at Sadiola this year. So part of the approach that we're taking is stay with the guidance that we have, but we do have that grab bag of opportunities. Those opportunities will achieve 1 of 2 objectives. One is to get us to the higher production level, all things going well and the other is to compensate where there might be some risk. So part of this is a risk mitigation approach. The answer to your specific question is that Agbaou is at a production level for this year in our guidance that is not taking full advantage of the nameplate of the plant. And we do intend to fill that plant, but we're just going through the normal steps that are required, as Johan mentioned before we can come up with better guidance on that.

And maybe just a follow-up perhaps on Bonikro and Kurmuk. I think there was sort of an indication that we're going to have sort of an update on the resource. But when would be sort of the earliest that we can think of that material coming into the mill into production?

I will jump in, Ingrid. Thank you for the question. From now, it would be about 2 years, considering permitting. Some of the oxide is high grade and near surface that will be easier to transport. I think we just need to work through the permitting process to get going there.

Thank you for that. And part of what is important in this discussion is that we're taking a very comprehensive approach to Bonikro, Oume, Hiré, and Agbaou. We've begun to call it a complex. We've deliberately said that administratively, we treat it as a complex. Gerardo referred to permitting. It's not just a specific permitting relating to Oume and treating that ore through the Bonikro plant. It's also the broader issue. What we're trying to do is we're trying to get to a point where we agree with the state with the Cote d'Ivoire and authorities where we can treat it as a complex. So 180,000 ounces coming from several opportunities, several mines. So rather than one several conventions and licenses, it would be subsumed into one. And that's part of the permitting process to which he refers.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Mohamed Sidibe.

It's Mohamed Sidibe from National Bank. My question on Oume has been asked, but the other question that I had was if you could provide any update on your discussions with Sam as it relates to exploration potential and opportunities near Sadiola. How have these been advancing? And any color on maybe expecting an update in 2025?

Well, we certainly hope and expect that there will be an update. There are several opportunities that are held by the state through this state mining company. We feel very privileged that they've come to us to assist in the due diligence and to look to see whether or not there are opportunities that we can pursue together. Some are not near Sadiola. Some represent very high-quality opportunities that we're certainly looking at seriously. And some, one in particular, is very close to Sadiola, and it can provide contributions to Sadiola for oxide ounces. It's more of an exploration opportunity. And while we've completed due diligence, we've shared that due diligence with the state and with SOREM. We are now in discussions on what could be terms that are beneficial to the state and beneficial for us.

There are no further questions registered at this time. So Mr. Marrone, I'll return the meeting back. So we have one more question that just came in from Justin Chan.

Just maybe one on tax. I saw that payables or tax payables, it was a fairly chunky increase and given the higher gold price makes sense. Just curious, I guess, on timing of cash tax and just maybe the effective rate on the income statement, what you see for this year so far, if things stay the same.

Justin, maybe I'll mention a few things related to your question. Maybe first, just to start with the baseline guidance on taxes for the year. We said $55 million was at $2,500 gold. You can just linearly scale that to whatever gold price you want. Similar to other years, I'd assume half of that amount is paid in Q2 and the balance is spread out over 3 quarters. So the payable that you see is partly that. And there's a part of our protocol agreement with the Malian state, we have a payment due at the end of the quarter here that's included in that current portion as well. Effective rate, on average, pre-one-off items, you can run a 30% rate, something like that.

Operator, are there any other questions?

No, there are no further questions, Mr. Marrone. Please go ahead.

So Justin, you got your question just in time before we cut everything off. But thank you very much for everyone for making the time for this call this morning. And we look forward to seeing you in a few weeks in a month or so with our first quarter results and look forward to seeing some of you in person with our shareholder meeting on May 8. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Your conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.